A Better America for Who?

July 20, 2016

Trump talks about making this country great again but who has it been great for? Rich white men? It is interesting to note that white males have the highest rates of suicide while black females are on the other end of the spectrum with the lowest rates of suicide. Having to find ways to cope with institutional racism can strengthen your inner resolve whereas entitlement born from privilege can do the opposite.

I read an excellent article in The Week magazine titled "Gun Rights: A Good Guy Fantasy Exposed." The article challenges the NRA's claim that "an armed society is a polite society." After all, both Alton Sterling and Philando Castile - the black men shot dead in Baton Rouge, LA and Falcon Heights, MN - were carrying guns for their own protection. The article goes on to say, "...rather than making these men safer, as per NRA dogma, their weapons frightened police officers and led to the men's deaths." The "open carry" law in Texas may have added to the confusion and danger for the!cops who had to contend with the one bad guy with an assault weapon among an estimated 30 gun-toting protestors.

The article references a quote from David Graham of TheAtlantic.com, "the deaths of Sterling and Castile show that 'the second amendment does not apply to Black Americans." Perhaps this comment refers to the NRA's differing response to these men's deaths as "troubling" when they usually defend anyone punished for exercising their second amendment rights. The Week's article goes on to say, "ever since the Reconstruction era, white Americans haven't wanted black people to share the right to bear arms."

We still have a long way to go as a country when it comes to gun control laws and equal rights for minorities including blacks, women, the deaf and hearing impaired, the poor working class, and the LGBT community. Why should anyone who fits into a minority group want things to return to the days when things were good for only those in positions of privilege in our society? I think I know the answer to that question: fear - the kind of fear narcissists like Trump (and other personality-disordered individuals from the cluster B group of personality disorders) use to control and manipulate people only to enhance their sense of power and stroke their egos.